Mary and Rhoda

A good TV movie. Like most reunions, it doesn't really capture the nostalgia like old reruns, but not many can. I wish they'd made a huge reunion movie including Lou Grant, Sue Ann Nivens, Murray Slaughter, etc. as well as Mary and Rhoda. Oh well. Anyway, the two leads shine brightly as does Joie Lenz (formerly Michelle on Guiding Light) as Mary's daughter. A good premise, too. Enjoyable.

"Mary And Rhoda" is an excellently written reunion of two of t.v.'s best loved women, Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern. Both Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper settle perfectly back into their parts, and they are surrounded by a wonderful, capable cast. Sometimes serious, sometimes funny, it's all great fun. Like visiting old friends years later. All in all, this is my 2nd favorite reunion movie of all time. ("A Very Brady Christmas" is still #1).

An utter, utter disappointment -- clearly, no-one involved with this production had any idea about what made the original MTM series work. After a moderately amusing update of the MTM show theme by Joan Jett, the film goes immediately downhill, with one witless, dull scene following another. Stars Moore and Harper try hard, but are completely at sea when faced with pedestrian direction, a bland, unmemorable supporting cast, and -- worst of all -- a truly awful script by one Katie Ford. Sadly, Ford seems to think she's writing the reunion movie "Lucy and Ethel", and apparently has been told to 'make it clichéd and dramatic ... but not too dramatic'.

Tellingly, not a single person from the original 70s classic series (aside from the two lead actresses) had any involvement with this reunion. James L. Brooks and Allan Burns don't even get credited for creating the original characters! Of course, looking at the finished product, it's entirely possible they petitioned to have their names removed from this film. If so, they made the right decision.

Alright, I have to admit that I have never seen "Rhoda" and only one or two episodes of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Even though I don't know anything about this duo of comedic talent, I still liked this movie a lot.

Mary goes back to work. Rose tries her luck at being a comedian. Rhoda struggles with a photography career. And Meredith...what exactly does she do again? These three stories that we follow over two hours are amusing and entertaining in their own way. When the two long time friends reunite, it only makes the film better.

I was surprised about how good the writing was. The little jokes thrown in by Mary and Rhoda were funny. The script itself was very well put together.

I had seen Moore and Harper in other movies over the past few years and thought that they were very good. But I had no idea that they worked this well as a team. While both actresses do their share to fulfill the title of this movie, they never seem to let me down. (During the run of this movie.) Joie Lenz and Marisa Ryan play their roles okay but nothing great. The rest of the cast like Jonah, Cecile and....everybody else also works well together.

Being that this is a reunion, you would expect for a fan of either show to enjoy this. From a non-fan I still enjoyed this little get-together. Good story lines for each character and the two main characters is what makes this film very good. (The newer version of the MTM theme song doesn't hurt either.)

The idea of bringing Mary Richards back to TV has been kicking around for quite some time. There has been talk in the past of reunion specials, series and a whole host of other projects. Last year there was even speculation that it might come back as a TV series with Mary Tyler Moore reprising her role and Valerie Harper reprising Rhoda. For whatever reason the idea didn't fly, but a concession was made for a TV movie titled, Mary and Rhoda.

As the story opens we learn that Mary Richards has recently lost her husband and Rhoda has just gone through a nasty divorce. They have two daughters and haven't spoken to each other since Mary made it clear that she didn't like Rhoda's philandering husband. When they both return to New York they get the idea of looking each other up and rekindling a friendship that has been put on hold for several years.

The first few minutes of the show is catch up time. We learn that Mary went on to work for ABC news (the network that carried this movie) and that Rhoda went on to become an art photographer in Paris (where she lived with her husband).

Mary put her career on hiatus several years back to raise her daughter Rose (played by Joie Lenz) who is now planning on dropping out of school to become a comedian (?) Rhoda, meanwhile, has become her own mother, budding in on her daughters' life (Meridith, played by Marisa Ryan).

Doing reunion shows must be a difficult thing to do, simply because I have yet to see one that is truly satisfying. The producers have two choices when it comes to making one. (A) Spend the whole movie updating the audience on what is going with the characters ... thus making the plot secondary, or (B) Sacrifice the very reason I would tune in and go with a dull plot. The producers of this show seemed to choose a happy medium, or at least I think they did.

We did update on Mary and Rhoda, most of it right at the beginning. I was disappointed that there was no discussion about the other cast members, but I suspect that could be a draw for the TV series that might just follow this movie. The plot was all right; certainly in keeping with Mary Richards. When she first appeared on television she was dealing with being a woman in the news business. Today she is dealing with being an older woman in the news business.

I liked some of the supporting characters in this one. It didn't seem forced, and if there is a series, I believe that an interesting premise has been built by this film. Christine Ebersol is a stand out as Cecile Andrews, the 'Ted Knight-Sue Ann Nivens' like anchor at the TV station Mary works for.

All in all this is an OK film. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who is not a fan of the original series, but for fans this is a must see. I know that one of the reasons this project took so long to get off the ground was because Moore was particular about how it was to be handled. Here she does things her way and she certainly proves something. As far as I'm concerned she can still turn the world on with her smile.